Growing, cooking and eating in Tottenham, north London (while Mouse checks in the shopping)

Saturday, 20 June 2009

Scones for breakfast

Brain the builder is back again this morning, finishing off work on my roof. There's been a leak for a while and with the rain coming down in punishing amounts, it was time to get it fixed at last. Brian disappeared up his ladder and returned with a grim face: the party wall was crumbling, the gutters were chocked, and there were large gaps letting the rain in. Oh, and the fascia board was rotten. So he's been hard at work over the past couple of days and it's almost done. To celebrate, I thought I'd rustle up some cheese scones to go with morning coffee.

I've loved cheese scones ever since I first bit into one at York University, many moons ago. My scone recipe is based on one from Sue Lawrence: 8oz self-raising flour with large pinches of bicarb and cream of tarter, sprinkles of cayenne and mustard powder, 3oz cheese (today I used Lincolnshire Poacher and a bit of left-over feta), 2oz butter and 5 fluid ounces of milk, soured with a squeeze of lemon. Combine your dry ingredients and butter in a processor then pour in the milk. You'll get a squidgy dough to roll out ready for your scone cutter. Top the scones with some grated cheese and bake at gas mark 7 for 15 minutes. For some strange reason, I always make scones in imperial measurements.The scones should emerge golden. I set out a plate of six scones, slavered with butter, for Brian and his co-worker which vanished in minutes......and I scoffed another couple, leaving a few that can travel with me to Bruce Grove, where I'll be at the Tottenham Festival later this morning, on duty with Friends of the Earth again.